Wal-Mart adds more online grocery pickup sites in Northwest Arkansas by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Wal-Mart is rolling out grocery pickup options at several of its Northwest Arkansas stores beginning Sept. 23…it’s expanding the grocery pickup test in its home market by adding five new Neighborhood Markets as pickup sites.” Read more

 

…Walmart expands curbside pickup in Arizona at Sun City West Independent. “Now the service is expanding to six West Valley Walmart locations in Peoria, El Mirage, Surprise, Goodyear and Glendale.” Read more

 

Target Fall Meeting in Full Swing by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “It climaxes on Wednesday afternoon when 13,000 Target employees decked out in red and khaki will fill Target Center for a gathering that is part pep rally and part business strategy. It usually includes announcements of new partnerships and initiatives, a sneak peek at holiday ads and big-name entertainment. Last year, Taylor Swift and Coldplay performed for Target employees, and actor Jamie Foxx made a cameo. Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and Oprah Winfrey have appeared in past years.” Read more

 

Target to Offer Fitbits to 335,000 Employees by Caroline Chen & Shannon Pettypiece at Bloomberg. “Target employees will be able to get Fitbit’s most basic device, a clip-on tracker called a Zip that retails for $59.95, for free. Or they can buy a more expensive wristband with Target subsidizing the cost, Jodee Kozlak, head of human resources at Target, said in an interview.” Read more

 

Walgreens Teams Up With Postmates for Delivery Partnership by Carmel DeAmicis at Recode. “Customers can order goods and pharmacy medications to their doorsteps from 600 Walgreens and Duane Reade stores across the country.” Read more

 

Disney/ABC Taps Walmart Exec for Strategic Role by Todd Spangler at Variety. ” (Cindy) Davis, as exec VP of consumer experience, will be responsible for developing research capabilities across Disney/ABC’s multiple platforms, as well as overall consumer-experience strategy…At Walmart, Davis had been exec VP of global customer insights and analytics since 2011. Prior to that, she was head of membership, marketing and e-commerce for Sam’s Club.” Read more

 

Layoffs to begin this fall at Home Depot center in Hagerstown by Don Aines at Herald-Mail Media. “Much of the direct online fulfillment workload is being shifted to a more centralized facility in Ohio, (Stephen) Holmes said at the time.”The bulk orders take less people to manage” with fewer but bigger orders running through the Hagerstown-area facility, he said Tuesday.” Read more

 

Q&A with Brian Cornell by Anne D’Innocenzio at AP via Pioneer Press. See the video / Read more

 

Alibaba’s logistics unit inks deal with USPS as cross-border ecommerce to hit $1T by 2020 by Michael De Waal-Montgomery. Read more

 

Menards pays $43M for Bloomington retail center by Sam Black at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. Read more

 

Amazon’s Sunnyvale drive-thru grocery store challenged — but by whom? by Nathan Donato-Weinstein at Silicon Valley Business Journal. “…the project — if expanded — could be a game-changer in the industry…Wolfe is a well-known land-use and environmental attorney who has worked on behalf of United Food and Commercial Workers Union previously. In that instance, UFCW was fighting Walmart’s expansion into that city.” Read more

 

Big Retailers, Delivery Firms Face Struggle to Find Holiday Workers by Laura Stevens & Loretta Chao at WSJ. “Few could have predicted the nation’s unemployment rate would fall to 5.1%, as it did last month, amid such red-hot growth in e-commerce. As a result, retailers and delivery companies expect to have to raise starting pay in some places.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Authors of ‘Amazonian Manifesto’ hire marketing firm to spread message at Amazon HQ by Jacob Demmitt at GeekWire. “The mysterious group that authored the “Amazonian Manifesto” to urge changes in Amazon’s workplace culture has hired a marketing company to get the message out to employees on the Amazon campus.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail. See our website at www.eyeonretail.net